Sigh Of Relief Over Daniloff

What a relief that U.S. News & World Report correspondent Nicholas Daniloff is coming home.

In the month that the West worried whether the Soviets would try Mr. Daniloff for espionage, the journalist assumed a symbolic role far larger than anyone might have imagined.

At the very least, this case suggests that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is capable of the same tit-for-tat pettiness of his predecessors. Mr. Daniloff's troubles followed too quickly the arrest by U.S. officials of Gennadiy Zakharov, a Soviet U.N. employee accused of spying.

Furthermore, the so far unfounded charge that Mr. Daniloff spied hurts Soviet credibility at a critical juncture: Preparations are under way for a second summit between President Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev, where success will be determined in large part by how much the leaders trust each other.

So it's not surprising that Mr. Daniloff's incarceration quickly became the major stumbling block to the summit -- a meeting the Soviets are far more eager to hold than the Americans.

Given the stakes and the tough U.S. posture, the Soviet Union had little choice but to concede. Indeed, this was a difficult decision as the superpowers posture for every advantage before the summit.

With the Daniloff affair settled, the superpowers need waste no time in deciding on a summit date and committing themselves to making that meeting productive.